Mrs Belogski I am the wife of a communal rabbi, mother of seven gorgeous and very lively children and a part-time freelance writer.

Perspective

Over the last 24 hours various ideas for posts were floating round in my head – a gentle, post-Shabbos guest/menu roundup, the amazing quantity and variety of body fluids which are involved in parenting, following our baby’s dramatic and messy stomach upset. I checked the computer briefly after Shabbos to see what was going on in Japan, and grunted vaguely when my husband said there had been a horrible attack in Israel.

But when I checked in properly this morning to see what had really happened, everything else paled into insignificance. It is impossible to comprehend how someone can murder tiny children. The family have released photos which show the full horror of the attack – I didn’t want to see them, but unfortunately, although most people have have linked to them have put a warning, some people haven’t, and I caught a glimpse before I clicked away. They are gut wrenching.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the situation grows worse and worse – what seemed to have been a comparatively lucky escape has turned into a full scale disaster, with the potential for worse to come.

How can I prepare for Purim? How can I not prepare for Purim? The geulah feels both closer and further away than ever.

As I bed in for another day of working on the computer with a (recovered, but still) miserable baby on my lap and another child who has caught the same bug, but at least is old enough to get to the bathroom in time, I am very thankful. Thankful that I live in a country where the earth isn’t suddenly going to crumble, or a 30 foot wave sweep my house away; that my 12 year old daughter will, iy”H, never see anything like theappalling sights that Tamar Fogel saw. And thinking that one has to keep one’s own problems in perspective.